Northern Realist offers various portrait courses dealing with different aspects of realist portraiture.

The three Saturday portrait course focuses on building up a drawing or painting over the duration of the course. You’ll work between and a model and a photo taken from your spot. By working between the two you’ll see the two approaches differ and develop the ability to use photographic reference creatively.

There is also a series of two day portrait courses looking at various aspects of portraiture. They build progressively, giving you a comprehensive guide to drawing and painting portraits from life. They are done entirely from a model and teach you how to make portrait studies and sketches. This ability is great for sketching in charcoal or paint and is invaluable for making studies for larger pieces and commissions. This series of workshops is perfect if you want to get more out of the open sessions held at the studio.

Because of the small class sizes you can work at your own level whether you’ve new to portraiture or have plenty of past experience. It’s recommended to start with charcoal drawing to learn essential tonal principles which will prove invaluable when you’ll be working in paint. This way you can develop your technique and confidence over several courses.

Northern Realist Portrait Courses